Using techniques to improve the students’ English writing skill in describing charts at Nhu Thanh High School

 PART ONE:	 INTRODUCTION	
 I. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
	Today learning English is very important because it is the only language that truly links the whole world together. English may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is the official language in a large number of countries. It is estimated that the number of people in the world that use in English to communicate on a regular basis is 2 billion. English is the dominant business language and it has become almost a necessity for people to use English if they are to enter a global workforce, research from all over the world shows that cross-border business communication is most often conducted in English. Its importance in the global market place therefore cannot be understated, learning English really can change people’s life. Many of the world’s top films, books and music are published and produced in English. Therefore by learning English you will have access to a great wealth of entertainment and will be able to have a greater cultural understanding. Most of the content produced on the internet (50%) is in English. So knowing English will allow people to access an incredible amount of information which may not be otherwise available!
 In fact, many Vietnamese students who have good professional knowledge, but can’t use English well don’t get good jobs or if they could get a job they even couldn’t have success. So, English is the first and the most important standard for workers who want to work not only at foreign companies but also at national ones.
 Writing which is one of the four skills of learning English can be one of the most enjoyable and satisfying activities for teachers and students to do together in a classroom, especially in a foreign language classroom. But writing skill which includes language, private knowledge and skill, emotion and the interaction of personal opinion is difficult and challenging to learn and develop for many students in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular. In Vietnam, there are many teachers of English who even believe that teaching writing skill to learners is more complex than teaching other communicative skills (Mazdayasna &Tahririan, 2001). 
	Especially, as one of the types of writing skill, describing charts seems to be the most challenging to students because to get success in this type of writing skill beside literature knowledge, students also need some more relevant skills such as: analysis, comparision, sum up and some useful language as well as useful structures.
 At Nhu Thanh High school, my students often see writing skill as hard work, boring, unrewarding, and not a lot of fun. Typically, they often get stuck in describing a chart.
 Therefore, in this study I present some techniques which I have used successfully over the last few years with classes of different sizes and levels to improve the students’ writing skill in describing charts. 
II. AIMS OF THE STUDY
 I do the research to know about the fact of teaching and learning writing skill in Nhu Thanh High School more clearly. This study also investigates whether the techniques can have positive impact on writing process among students and can develop their writing skill or not. Bearing in mind, I decide the research with title “Using techniques to improve the students’ English writing skill in describing charts at Nhu Thanh High School”.	 
III. RESEARCH QUESTIONS	
This study aims at finding answer to the following research question:
How can the techniques help the students at Nhu Thanh High School improve their describing charts skill?
The question has been addressed to the two classes of two levels (11A3 and 12C6 of the school year 2018-2019 ) that I have been teaching in Nhu Thanh High School with the aim to examine how the techniques affect the process of writing here.	 
IV. SCOPE OF THE STUDY 
This study aim to teach writing skill in a systematic way, because it is experience for teaching as well as for practice. The study investigates using techniques to help teachers present their writing lessons in describing charts more clearly and help students practice more successfully so that they can improve their writing skill.	
V. METHODS OF THE STUDY
In this study, I use some research tools to collect and analyze the needed data:
-Recording is used to record the process and the result of using the techniques.
-The second tool used in this study is interviews with students at the end of the research to study whether using the techniques in English writing lessons of describing charts is really suitable and comprehensible for them or not.
	PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
 I. OVERVIEW OF WRITING SKILL INCLUDING DESCRIBING CHARTS	
 Lannon (1989) claims that writing is a process delivering meaningful messages and including its own specific goal. This process requires students to work hard instead of regarding it as an uncomplicated act (Byrne, 1988). However, in language teaching and learning process, Tribble (1996, p.3) defines writing as a language skill that involves “not just a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way”. This means writers need to arrange their ideas logically and systematically. 
 Describing charts is a special kind of writing. Here students have to work on numbers and charts in bar, pie or line shapes. They have to use their own words to express the trend, the difference or the changes of the items in the charts in the ways to give the readers a clear imagination and comprehension of the charts
 Some of the difficulties associated with the teaching of writing in foreign language classes come from the nature of writing itself. Writing is an artificial activity in a way that speech is not; while every normal human being on this planet learns, eventually, to talk and to listen, far fewer people become literate, able to write. Writing is learned, while speaking is acquired as part of growing up. 
 Describing charts is indeed difficult, for several reasons. Firstly, the writer has to decide what information the reader needs on the chart, and how best to express this. So there is a psychological difficulty, in that the writer cannot consult the reader- the audience is not immediately present, in contrast with most conversations. Writer has no immediate feedback to let them know how they are doing and whether they should change their approach. There is no immediate interaction between the producer and receiver. Secondly, there is a linguistic difficulty, in that the language used in describing charts is different in most ways from that used in speech or in other kinds of writing.
 In schools, writing is taught partly as a vital part of literacy program, but also in order to show that work is being done. Writing is often associated, particularly in weaker students’ minds, with “chores” or even with discipline (the traditional writing lesson is quite quiet, so the teacher is easily able to keep control). This “homework syndrome” can lead to students making less and less progress because they are poorly motivated, perform badly, receive low grades, and end up disliking writing more and more. 
II. THE REASON WHY DESCRIBING CHARTS IS DIFFICULT 
By its nature, writing, especially describing charts is often a solo activity, done silently, involving physical effort and taking a lot of time. This may not make it attractive to learners or teachers as a classroom activity. In addition to this, describing charts is difficult, there are linguistic, psychological and cognitive problems involved, making teaching it and learning it a considerable challenge. It is also important to remember that many people never write anything of any length in their daily lives, or anything using paper and a pen, or without using a spellchecker. But this is often what we ask them to do in English.
CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL SITUATIONS
I. METHODS OF THE STUDY
The research is done qualitatively in the context of two English classes 11A3 and 12C6 of the school year 2018-2019 at Nhu Thanh High School). In this survey, I use the survey questionnaire for students. This survey is designed to collect information for the study on “An investigation into the Reality of teaching and learning English writing skill at Nhu Thanh High School. 
II. THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILL AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL	
The whole procedure of teaching and learning is implemented similarly to all students of the class after all of them give consent to be part of the research. However, due to the limit of the study, I only focus to collect information from the learning engagement of two classes 11A3 and 12C6 of the school year 2018-2019 at Nhu Thanh High School) during this process as the data for analysis. Below is the survey of the practical situation of learning English writing skill on describing charts at Nhu Thanh High School.
Survey no.1
 Practical Situation of learning English writing Skill at Nhu Thanh High School.
Questions for students
A
B
C
D
1. Which of these four following types oof writing do you think the most difficult ?
Description
10%
discussion 
20%
Argument
25%
Describing charts
45%
2.which items in a writing lesson of describing charts makes you the most difficult?
Kinds of chart
12%
Analyzing the chart 16%
 Deciding which is essentil information 
47%
Using language suitably
25%
3. What do you think of your writing classes of describing charts at Nhu Thanh High School?
Really interesting
3%
Interesting
7%
Boring
41%
Really boring
49%
4. What do you think of the materials used for writing skill about charts at Nhu Thanh High School?
Difficult and boring
51%
Difficult but interesting
8%
C. Interesting and stimulating
9%
Easy and boring
32%
From the survey number 1, we can see that writing about charts is often done silently at Nhu Thanh High School, this may not make it attractive to learners as a classroom activity. The students often see describing grraphs as hard work, boring, unrewarding. Moreover, students are poorly motivated so they dislike being involved in writing activities about charts.
 In addition to this, one problem in the writing classes is that some teachers feel difficult to present clear steps to help students feel more motivated and easier to do the task. Therefore, both teachers and students don’t feel willing to engage in writing lesson about graphs.
	CHAPTER 3:
TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ ENGISH WRITING SKILL IN DESCRIBING CHARTS
I. RECOMMENDATIONS 
According to the data analysis from the survey, it can be personally concluded that the most important feature that makes my students to engage more in the lesson is the kind of assessment which forces them to learn although the meaningfulness of tasks also more or less affect the level of engagement
the most meaningful tasks to my students are tasks that can help them to pass the tests at the end of the semester not tasks that give them reasons to communicate as I expected. For them, the most motivating task is also easy and clear enough. But all the writing lessons about charts are complex and challenging and not for the final tests or exams so the sudents all think themseves it isn’t necessary to learn describing charts.
Therefore, I have used some techniques to improve my students’ writing skill n describing charts.
Using games is one of the most important ways to teach efficiently in a language class. Games mean the world to children. Nothing is more fun than playing games for them because they feel happy and free while playing. Remember when you were young, you will remember the games you played and the happiest moments of your life.
It does not matter indoor or outdoor, we can not deny the importance of games. If students learn with games, have fun, feel happy and free, it means that you have reached your goals. Games strengthen language skills, besides learners develop social skills and good relationships while they interact with each others.
Whatever your goal is(speaking, grammar points, vocabulary, writing, etc.) you must believe that every game you have students play, is much more useful than tons of exercises and worksheets and you get more positive results than anything else. 
II. PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS: USING TECHNIQUES.
Giving a clear format:
Write an introduction to the topic of the graph in your own words (content+ place+ time) by rewording it.
Give an overview of the main ideas in the graph. (most general trend/difference) 
Describe the most important changes and numbers. Remember to include relevant comparison. 
Illustrating how to carry out the three above steps.
How to reword the introduction:
2.1.1: Giving some examples:
Eg 1: The chart shows information about visitors to Australia, 2000-2008. 
The graph illustrates/provides information/data about how many people visited/ the number of people who visited Australia over an eight-year period between 2000 and 2008. 
Eg 2: The graph shows data about the annual earnings of three bakeries in London, 2000-2010
à The graph highlights data about the amount of money which was earned / how much money was earned by three bakeries in London from 2000 to 2010. 
2.1.2: Giving some topics then asking the students to practise:
Write the introduction in two ways using how much/howmany, the number of/the amount of 
Unemployment rates, India and Brazil, 1995-2000
DVD sales, UK and USA, 2005-2008
Chocolate production, Colombia, 1997-2000
Gas production in Russia , 2003-2008 
Employment rates in the public sector, UK, 2006-2010
How to write an overview:
Possible sentences: representing some models of sentences used to write an overview for discribing a chart:
There was a (significant) upward/downward trend in ..
saw/witnessed a (considerable) fall over the period. 
fluctuated significantly over the period. 
Some examples 
Ex1: Overall, what stands out from the graph is that there were considerable upward trends in the income of both Bernie’s Buns and Robbie’s Bakery, while the earnings of Lovely Loaves saw a substantial fall over the period in question.
Ex2: In general, it can be seen that the income of Bernie’s Buns and Robbie’s Bakery rose whereas the income of Lovely Loaves went down significantly over the time period covered by the graph. 
Ex 3:Overall it can be seen that Bernie’s Buns is generally the busiest bakery, outselling Lovely Loaves in six out of eight items. On the whole, savoury foods such as toasted sandwiches , salads and fresh loaves are not as popular as sweet items like cakes and cookies.
2.3: How to write the details:
- Focus on the small changes or visible trends or the various differences in fingures. 
-Analyse the data to show the paticular view. 
- Use a variety of comparison structures and expression structures to describe the charts.
3: Languages to describe changes or differences:
3.1: Verbs:
Verbs
Increase
Big increase
Decrease
Inprove, increase, rise, grow, go up
Rocket, shoot up, jump, soar, surge, double
Fall, decline, decrease, drop, go down
Ex: Asks the students to put a suitable verb in each blank based on the two charts above:
The income of Burnies’ Buns .between 2006 and 2008. 
The amount of money earned by Robbies’ Bakery ..between 2008 and 2010. 
Earnings of Lovely Loaves .between 2004 and 2005. 
The income of Robbies’ Bakery during the first five year of the period. 
3.2: Adverbs:
Adverbs
Big change
Fast change
Small change
Dramatically/ significantly/ considerably
Rapidly/sharply
slightly/ negligibly
/marginally
3.3:	Nouns: 
 a rise, a fall, a decline, a soar, an increase, a drop, a fluctuation, a plunge, a decrease, a dip, a recovery, a jump, a growth. 
3.4: Adjectives: 
 dramatic, steady, considerable, negligible, remarkable, gradual, significant, 
3.5: Other expressions: 
 Fluctuate, level off, hit/reach a peak, dip, recover, remain stable, hit a trough,.
3.6: Structures:
-	Comparative 
-	Superlative 
-	X is not as + adj + as + Y 
-	X is nowhere near as + adj + as + Y (big difference)
-	X is not nearly as + adj + as + Y 
-	X is almost as + adj + as + Y (small difference) 
-	X is not quite as + adj + as + Y 
-	Not verb + as NP + as 
-	X is + three times/ twice/ half + as adj + as + y
Examples:
.	Monster Records- 230,000 CDs, 1990- Crooner- 225,000 CDs
	→ Monster Records sold more CDs than Crooners in 1990. 
→Crooners did not sell as many CDs as Monster Records in 1990, with 225,000 compared to 230,000. 
→ Monster Records was more successful than Crooners ..
→ Crooners was not as successful as Monster Records 
→ Crooners was almost/not quite as successful as Monster Records
3.7: Structures to vary expressions:
-	There was a/an + adj + N 
-	S + witnessed/saw/experienced + a/an + adj + N
Ex: Vary the expressions:
. Sales of DVDs in the UK rose sharply between 2001 and 2004. 
→There was a sharp rise in sales of DVDs in the UK from 2001 to 2004. 
→Sales of DVDs in the UK experienced a sharp rise between 2001 and 2004. 
→The number of DVDs (which were) sold in the UK shot up
Giving some more sentences and asking them to vary them:
. Chocolate production in Colombia saw a significant fall.
. There was a steady growth in average incomes in Europe between 1998 and 2004. 
. The amount of chocolate I ate before my IETLS exam rose dramatically.
3.8:Linking phrases:
-	As regards 
-	Regarding 
-	If we look at
-	As for
-	With respect to 
-	Looking at the details, 
-	By contrast, 
-	Overall, in general, on the whole 
-	After that, and then, following this, at this point, subsequently, next. 
-	While, whereas
Ex: Example
Looking at the details, as regards Burnie’s Buns, income started at $20,000 in 2000, after that there was a fluctuation over the next three years, at which point it levelled off at just under $40,000 until 2006. Next the figure went up significantly to $60,000 in 2008. Subsequently, income rose gradually and finished at If we look at Robbie’s Bakery, the trend was similar.
3.9:Prepositions: 
Use AT with start and finish 
Use TO with increase and decrease 
Use AT with remain stable and level off 
Use AT with peak 
Use BY to describe how much sth increases or decreases
Use BETWEEN  ANDto describe the range of fluctuation
Ex: As regards Robbies’ Bakery, income started at $55,000 in 2000 and remained stable this figure until 2005. At this point, there was a sharp rise to $70,000. Between 2007 and 2008, the figure went up around by $30,000 from $70,000 to nearly $100,000. Finally, income grew gradually and peaked at $105,000 in 2010. If we look at Lovely Loaves, earnings fluctuated between $80,000 and $90,000 in the first five years. And then there was a sharp fall to $40,000 in 2008. Finally, the figure levelled off at $40,000 and finished the same figure.
3.10: Express numbers:
50%- a half of/ one in two/ one out of two/ one out of every two.
25%- a quarter of/ one in four/ one out of four/ one out of every four.
75%- a thirds of/ three in four/ three out of four/ three out of every four.
10%- one tenths of/ one in ten/ one out of ten/one out of every ten.
40%- 
33.3%.........
20%..........
64%.........
32%..........
3.11:Ranking
list/ one/ place 
-	In first/second/last.was X
-	Top/bottom of the .was 
-	The number activity is X
-	X was ranked second with
-	First/last on the was X
-	X headed the ..with 
-	Ranked in third .was X
-	The most/ second most/least popular is X
-	Next came X
-	This was followed by X
4. Practice: 
decribe the following chart in about 80 words.
Giving a full example of writing:
Suggested answer:
The chart presents why people from other countries go to New Zealand. 
	Overall, the majority of visitors go for pleasure, not for work.
The largest percentage, 47 percent, go there on holiday. Twenty nine percent visit New Zealand in order to see friends and family.